Singers are not domesticated dogs that have had their natural instincts dulled or their wild independent personalities modified by artificial selection. Singers are not the dog for the casual owner. Keeping a Singer is like living with a very tame, people-friendly coyote. A Singer owner must be able to provide the secure environment it takes to keep Singers and their potential prey safe. Singers are not normally dominant or aggressive toward people, and tend instead to be shy and submissive. However, whether or not they are considered a "good" or appropriate pet depends on the owner and the environment.
They must be willing to be just a "good friend" to the Singer and not expect the dog to consider them "lord and master." They must be patient and gentle. Singers are very sensitive and a person pone to fits of temper or yelling will quickly ruin a Singer’s personality and make it shy. Most of all, they must have a burning desire to share their life with a mischievous wild spirit.
Singers are supreme predators. They consider any animal up to the size of a full-grown sheep prey. This includes unfamiliar small dogs. However, if introduced to the family cats as a puppy, a Singer will learn to respect them as part of the family rather than prey. Strange cats that come into the yard will be considered "fair game." Introducing a new cat or kitten to a resident adult Singer would probably be a problem. Singers will always consider pet birds and small mammals prey so these should be kept out of reach of the Singer.
Singers are not by nature pack animals. After sexual maturity they will consider any strange dog or any familiar dog of the same sex a rival for territory and mates, and they will be aggressive toward them. Young Singers and those de-sexed before sexual maturity (between 6 and 9 months of age) are less dog-aggressive. However, even when being friendly Singers can get into trouble because their mode of play is different from the average domestic dog’s. They do much less "play invitation" and tend to abruptly play-bite or jump on the other dog. If the receiver of this Singer play attempt does not understand Singer body language they may become defensive and growl. Then of course, the Singer thinks " I see. You want to fight instead of play. I can do that." and the trouble begins. All Singers should go to puppy socialization classes so they can have happy experiences with many other dogs and their owners at a young age. As mentioned above small dogs, especially furry ones like Maltese and Shih Tzu, may be considered prey and the Singer may just grab them up if given the chance. Singers raised with family dogs, even toy ones, will accept them and live in peace as long as there is no mate competition.
The male/female relationship works best with Singers.
The answer to this of course depends upon the child. Most Singers like well-behaved polite children. They naturally gravitate toward them. A person who rescued an adult male neutered Singer was concerned about the Singer’s potential response when their first child was born a year after adopting the Singer. There was some worry how the Singer would react to the "funny" sounds and smells of the baby as it would toward prey or consider the baby a rival. Instead, the Singer immediately "adopted" the baby and took on the job of keeping the other family dogs away from it. This family now has two toddlers and the Singer is extremely devoted to them.
Most Singers do fine on a diet based on a high quality meat-based dog food. Some Singer owners feel their Singers keep on weight better if they are supplemented with extra meat. Many give some raw chicken or other raw meat, on the hypothesis that since these are wild dogs, not selected to eat human-generated food like domestic dogs have been for thousands of years, they may need more of the nutrients available only found in uncooked meat.
Singers are very active as puppies up to about a year of age, and then would be considered medium active. They are never "hyper," just busy exploring and playing. Older Singers are content to sleep on the couch (or the bed) most of the day. Outside, they have a strong desire to explore/hunt and will walk and run for miles.
Singers have adapted well to everything from duplexes with a small patio to country living. Since Singers can never be allowed to run off leash in an area without secure fencing, most do not have a free-running area bigger than an average back yard. If a Singer must be confined in a pen for more than 50% of the time the pen should be at least 100 square feet.
Because they are adapted to living in high mountains and dense forests, Singers are, like cats, by nature jumpers and climbers. Unlike cats they also are terrific diggers and chewers and will work very hard at escaping fences. Fences lower than 6 feet have kept supervised Singers confined for daily exercise, but only if an electric wire is installed at the top. If Singers are to be left unsupervised, the fences must be at least 6 feet high (including gates) and have some barrier at the top to prevent climbing escapes and barriers at the bottom to prevent digging escapes. Young Singers can also squeeze their entire bodies through any space wide enough to admit their heads.
A year old Singer curiously
checks out a cat in the window.
Even at a young age they are extremely agile and can jump very high.
Singers are about average at learning to eliminate outside or on a designated indoor area. Under three months of age they have little voluntary control over their bladders, but even at 6 weeks of age they will go through a dog door to have bowel movements. If the owner is alert, consistent and keeps the puppy on a routine for feeding and exercise, most Singer puppies are fairly well house trained in about four weeks. Having a dog door out to a Singer-proof secured area greatly facilitates housetraining. Intact adult Singers, especially males, will "forget" their training during breeding season and mark indoors. They will also tend to want to mark new places (such as friend’s homes and motel rooms) and should be supervised until they have become familiar with the area.
Like wild canids and the Basenji breed, Singers have one breeding season a year. The Singer breeding season starts in July, so most puppies are born in October/November. However, Singers have a unique repeat estrus cycle if they do not get pregnant the first cycle and so sometimes puppies are born in January/February. Members of the New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society, are the only persons outside of zoos to have pedigreed Singers and cooperate in the over-all breeding plan. Because Singer homes are as rare as the dogs themselves, only two or three litters are currently being produced each year. Because such a small breeding population (less than 100 world wide) could be quickly swamped by the progeny of one pair if all of the pups became breeding stock, most Singer puppies are placed as pets on a neuter/spay agreement. This seems strange when part of the effort to save them from extinction is to increase the number of captive breeding specimens, but it is also important to maintain as much genetic diversity as possible while the population slowly expands. A given pair should contribute only two or three offspring to the breeding population in their lifetime. In addition, intact Singers have very strong sex drives. Both sexes become highly agitated when isolated from potential mates and howl, mark and become very destructive in their attempts to reach a mate. If a Singer is to be only a house pet, both Singer and owners will both be much happier if he/she is de-sexed.
Most rare breeds sell for from $2,500 to $5,000 each when they are new to the USA and many people (rare breed puppy mills) produce as many puppies as possible, and sell to anyone with the price in hand, to capitalize on this. This would be disastrous for Singers. So, although Singers are truly the most ancient and rare type of dog today, and may even be an endangered species, and as such are really "priceless" treasures, the New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society does not want Singers to become attractive to those who breed rare breeds only for profit. Our breeders (who have all agreed to abide by a Code of Ethics) price their puppies about the same as any average pedigreed purebred puppy in their area. In 2001 this is about $500.00 for pets and $700.00 for potential breeding stock.
Most zoo Singers and the breeding stock belonging to NGSDCS members, are listed with the International Species Inventory System [ISIS]. This is a service provided to zoos for all species through which pedigrees can be traced so the best breedings can be planned and other information about the specimen, such as health problems and reproductive behavior, can be recorded. Some Singers are also registered with the United Kennel Club. These had to be ISIS listed or have two ISIS listed parents to be eligible for the UKC. The NGSDCS has recently established a registry service. Singers without pedigrees can be registered if they pass an examination by experts, as can any pedigreed Singer. Because many Singers in the USA today have been produced by exotic animal dealers who keep no records of the origin of their stock or whom they are placed with, the NGSDCS wanted to provide a way for these undocumented Singers to get onto a pedigree basis. Hopefully they can be part of the over all conservation breeding plan.
Although the captive Singers have been highly inbred from just a few founders, they are surprisingly hardy and healthy. They have no inherited eye or bone/joint problems. Recently three apparently healthy adult Singers, owned by different people, reported their Singers dying unexpectedly. These Singers showed no symptoms prior to their sudden deaths, except one seemed a little "lethargic" for two weeks. No causes of death could be determined. The NGSDCS is working to gather health information from zoos that have had Singers and will continue to investigate possible causes. In addition, one 12 week old puppy has been diagnosed with a severe heart defect and one adult male has had recurrent digestive problems. Although data gathering has just been started, and no generalization can be made about average life span, the records for longevity are 19 ½ and 20 years for males that were kept in zoos most of their lives. Scratchley, a female ancestor of many of today’s pedigreed Singers, had her last litter at 12 years of age (sire was 17) and raised them with no problems. She is now (2001) 17 years and although her whole body is gray she is still active and alert and living in an outdoor pen in SC with an unheated dog house.
The New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society is the best source of Singer information. The members are dedicated to providing the most accurate information about Singers. They do not "glamorize" or "sanitize" Singers, making them sound like something they are not. The members want every person thinking about getting a Singer to understand exactly what NGSDs are like, as otherwise there is always a bad outcome for both the people and the dog. The members include scientists who have been studying Singers for years and several long-term owners of multiple Singers, in addition to many owners of single Singer pets. The NGSDCS also has an e-mail discussion list where people share their Singer experiences. See http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ngsd/
All Singer owners are encouraged to join the NGSDCS. Those owners that do not wish to join are welcome to participate in research by contributing information and cooperating in non-invasive studies on Singer physiology, behavior and DNA.
The majority of NGSDCS members are non-owner supporters of Singer conservation. The NGSDCS is now a 509c2 organization. Donations made to the NGSDCS are tax-deductible.
The following New Guinea Singing Dog Conservation Society officers will answer Singer related questions:Joan Dalgleish
singingdog@telus.netJan Koler-Matznick jkoler@ccountry.net
